Power

[Mike]

Hey Allan,

One of the ways we cut back on plugs was to switch to the vortechs. We went from 4 pumps to 2. We also don't run the heater most of the time and wehen we switched our lights, we made back like 3 more plugs.

Count me in for beer at my house, or bachelor night out - at the fish stores obviously- would be cool. Crazy at work, but we can make something happen...

[alton]

Count the watts on your equipment, do not exceed 1900 watts and do not install a larger breaker. 15a for #14 gauge, 20a for #12 and 30a for #10. If you live in the city of SA the minimum gauge is #12, but if you live outside the city you may have #14? Per 2008 code all homes shall be equiped with either Arc Fault or Ground Fault Breakers. There only a very few exceptions.

[allan]

Alton,

The only problem I have with counting the equipment stated watts is the high end plus padding that I believe the MFR puts on for liability. Thank you for the guage breakout, I've been thinking of that but never got up the energy to type in the google search.

I'll check the gauge in my home... but going by memory (I had to replace the 20 circuit breaker) it looks like 12 gauge wire... of course I've not had my eye's calibrated any time in the recent future. BLUF is that I do live a stone's throw outside SA city limits. Aside from the numerous lower end fixtures in the house I would imagine that the wiring is to SA code... of course when replacing my lights with ceiling fans I found several instances where grounding wires weren't even stripped for connection.

I recently (two days ago) had to replace my kitchen ballast (runs four T8 bulbs (how did I ever learn so much about florescent lights???)), and realized after I put in the new one that the old one had been humming ever since I bought the house (Pulte, Inventory).

I guess things like this happen. One home in the area was built without a kitchen sink... they fixed it but I'm thinking "Come on!", and another was built without any windows in the kitchen.

So, should I bring in another power drop? I'm assuming that since my stuff can all run at the same time to include the closet light and the fan/light combo, that I'm not exceeding 2kW, else I'd have a problem with the breaker. It doesn't even feel warm.

[allan]

Mike,

I wonder if Gabe is monitoring this thread and getting any ideas of a drinking window of opportunity to sell more coral?

Another midnight sale perhaps?

[Salty]

Breakers will usually only allow 80-85% of their rated load to be passed continuously if I remember right. Then you have to account for voltage loss through the actual wiring. Your transient load can be higher, but I don't remember how long the trip time is for inductive loads on standard breakers, somewhere in the miliseconds I think. Then you get into duty cycles and yada yada yada, (insert $700 electrician here). Count on your standard 15 amp to realistically pass around ~1200 watts before it pops. Seriously though, that's a big ... load for a tank.

[allan]

Breakers will usually only allow 80-85% of their rated load to be passed continuously if I remember right. Then you have to account for voltage loss through the actual wiring. Your transient load can be higher, but I don't remember how long the trip time is for inductive loads on standard breakers, somewhere in the miliseconds I think. Then you get into duty cycles and yada yada yada, (insert $700 electrician here). Count on your standard 15 amp to realistically pass around ~1200 watts before it pops. Seriously though, that's a big ... load for a tank.

I think you're on target. As far as voltage drop, I wouldn't imagine that would be significant, even during the summer's heat with the actual wires running completely inside the buildings internal walls. My breaker is upstairs and the library is almost directly beneath it. I meant to stop by and get a kill a watt meter yesterday but forgot.

[Salty]

^^ Family has been in the rental business for 30 years, just what I've picked up from electricians along the way, some more ummm "professional" than others.

[allan]

Okay, this is what I finally did.

I got tired of worrying about the load in that room so I picked up some 12-2 (about 250 feet (waaay overkill on length)), about 80' of conduit pipe and corners, and two 20A circuit breakers, along with two 15A plugs and associated mounting hardware. Ran me just north of a single bill.

I then proceeded to dig a trench (shhh, about 4" to 8" in places) to run my line. I had originally planned on bringing in another 20A of power to the room, but when I realized that I had a freaky amount of wiring I picked up the other 20A circuit breaker.

I installed the wire from the external 200A drop box, ran it clear around the house and through the wall. Installed everything inside to code (which implies that the exterior was done somewhat less than code, but it was all to code).

Then the first real test. I tied in the appropriate lines for single phase power to the room (I almost purchased the dual pole circuit, whew). The second real test was flipping the switch. The third test was unplugging the extension cords running to the room and reconnecting it to the newly installed plugs. I put in a four place plate that houses two 2xplug sets. A single 20A circuit running to both.

Where I messed up. Should have went ahead and ponied up for the 20A plugs. I didn't need 20A plugs, but since everything else is wired for 20A to include the circuit breakers I've actually created a weak link in the system at the plug in point. I did get the best rated 15A socket sets that they had... but still.

Now I've got a total of 40A available to the room above and beyond the stock 15 that the room was wired for.

I'm out about one note, about four hours, and I'd say about half a cup of A- (I sliced into my finger rather deeply and it bled for about 15 minutes before God's bandaid was able to take affect).

Relax guys, I didn't get any of the blood into the tank (didn't want the massive amounts of iron in me to mess up my water parameters).